LeBlanc To Be Member of Capital Area Community Partnership Panel

September 4, 2009 (Baton Rouge, La.) Baron & Budd, P.C. shareholder Burton LeBlanc was recently appointed to serve as a member of the Capital Area Community Partnership Panel by the Louisiana Bar Foundation (LBF) Board of Directors. LeBlanc, a former president of the Louisiana Association for Justice (LAJ), also recently became Treasurer of the American Association for Justice (AAJ) and Chairman of AAJ’s National Finance Council, which heads up most of the organization’s fundraising efforts.

LeBlanc was one of only a handful of attorneys selected for the panel. As an officer in both the AAJ and LAJ, LeBlanc has shown his commitment to serving the public and the legal community on both a national and local level.

“As a lawyer, I feel like it’s my duty to serve the community,” LeBlanc said. “Being part of this panel is another great way for me to continue to lead and serve the lawyers and citizens of Louisiana the best I can.”

As a member of the panel, LeBlanc will serve as a liaison for grantees, identify the need for funds in the community and work with the LBF to disperse grant funds to non-profit agencies.

Following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, the LBF established the Disaster Relief Legal Services Grant Program, which awarded grants to agencies providing legal services to displaced hurricane victims in Louisiana. The LBF also partnered with the Louisiana Bar Association and Louisiana legal services programs to create the Access to Justice Program, which provides funding to legal service providers to represent families who cannot afford legal assistance. In 2008 alone, the LFB awarded more than $2.2 million in grants for community projects.

About Baron & Budd

Dallas-based Baron & Budd, P.C., with offices in Baton Rouge, Austin and Beverly Hills, is a nationally recognized firm with more than three decades of experience representing people and communities harmed by corporate negligence. It has been recognized by the National Law Journal’s “Plaintiffs’ Hot List” six out of the seven years the list has been published (2002-2006, 2008, by Incisive Media). The firm resolved one of the first asbestos exposure cases in the United States in the 1970s and has continued to help people affected by asbestos exposure, as well as communities and consumers dealing with the costs of fraud and corporate misconduct.